The Ballerina
by Lilith0376
Summary: While chaperoning his sister to her boyfriend's house in Germany, Bunji finds an unlikely love match of his own.
1. Chapter 1

The Ballerina

Part 1

"I can't believe you made me travel with you." Bunji complains to his sister. "Come on Bunji it will be fun." She answers. "Sure it will." He says. "You have never been to Friedrich's house before, besides there is someone I want you to meet." Bunji rolls his eyes at her, he still isn't happy about chaperoning his older sister to a place she's already been to.

A little while latter they reach their destination a large timbered house in the traditional German style. "It looks like a gingerbread house." Bunji remarks. Now is Meg rolling her eyes at her brother. They pull over to the driveway the door opens before they exit the car, Friedrich is standing there waiting for them. The first thing Meg does is run to his arms and kisses him.

"Don't forget to breathe." Bunji tells them. The two lovers pull apart. "Thank you for killing the moment." His sister says. "You're welcome." Is his response. "Where is your luggage?" Friedrich asks. "It's in the car, do you want to go get it?" Bunji says mockingly. He is having fun upsetting his sister at her boyfriend's expense.

After the luggage is taken indoors a soft female voice is heard from another room. "Friedrich! Are your guest here?" "They are." He responds. "Come meet them." Footsteps are heard from the direction the soft voice came from, a young girl - not only just a girl but the girl of Bunji's dream appears. She came to stand next to Friedrich. "I would like you to meet my little schwester, Klara." He says. "Well, you already know her." He tells Meg.

"Hi Klara!" Meg greets and hugs her. "Hallo." She responds returning the greeting and hug. "He's my little brother Bunji." Meg says as she introduces him. On his part Bunji neither moves nor says a thing, his sister has to nudge him to get him to say something. "Oh. . . Hi, I'm. . . I'm Bunji, Bunji Bennett." He fumbles, then turns to Meg and says "Little?" Klara lightly laughs at his discomfort. "I'll show you to your rooms." She says. The two follow her to their assigned rooms. "Mama and papa will back in a while." She says.

Klara is not what Bunji expects, she is or looks Asian, with raven-haired, almond shaped eyes, but her eyes are blue _could she be wearing colored contacts_? Her skin is lighter, her nose is more Caucasian, she is a little taller than most Asian women he'd seen. He wanted to ask but decides it isn't the right time so instead he looks around and decides her house is a much safer way to go.

"So, how big is your house?" Bunji asks her after they are done unpacking. "It's a cottage to begin with." Klara replies. "It's big - 5 bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, 3 full bathrooms, an attic, a basement, 2 fireplaces, a large garage, a small library and a large backyard." Bunji's mouth is wide open.

"Well, it qualifies as a large house, but when it was first built it was a cottage; the main building was constructed 381 years ago and over the years different generations of our family added to it. We have a large garten part of which we use as a Gemüsegarten - kitchen garten." She explains.

The three come downstairs still talking about the house when they see Friedrich speaking to someone in the living room. "Mama! Papa!" Klara says as she sees her parents - they happily open their arms to welcome her with a hug. Meg and Bunji stand back as they finish saying their hellos. The adults turn to face their guests. "Hallo, Megan." Mr. Rademacher says. "Hello." She replies then introduces her brother. "I would like you to meet my little brother, Bunjiro." Bunji extents his hand to shake first Mr. Rademacher's hand then his wife. "Nice to meet you." He says. "Nice to meet you too." Klara's mother replies. "My name is Helga." She says. "And I'm Viktor." Her husband says after her.

She motions them to sit. "Did you eat or drink yet?" She asks them. "Not yet, we were unpacking." Meg responds. Mrs. Rademacher gets up and goes to the kitchen, Klara follows after her mother. Meantime Bunji, Meg, Friedrich and Mr. Rademacher are left in the living room. While Meg begins a polite conversation Bunji doesn't know what to say or how to add to what his sister has already started.

Friedrich notices Bunji's distressing look. . . "Bunji why don't tell my Vater about your martial arts training." He says. "You practice martial arts?" Viktor asks. "Yes, sir." Bunji responds timidly. "I practice Karate primarily plus the other forms of martial arts." Mr. Rademacher is impress. "My kids are taking martial art classes too." He says. "Friedrich just got his black belt in Tae-Kwon-Do, Klara is learning Ninjitsu." Now it was Bunji's turn to be impressed.

"A ninja-ballerina." Friedrich adds. Bunji is confused at the comment made by his friend. Both father and son laugh lightly before Viktor explains what his son means. "Klara is a attending ballet school, she wants to become a ballerina." He explains. "Each discipline helps the other and makes her stronger." Bunji understand now and nods. Meg gets up and excuses herself, she goes to the kitchen to help Mrs. Rademacher and Klara leaving her brother alone with the her boyfriend and his father.

"You never mentioned you were learning any kind of martial art." Bunji accuses Friedrich. "I'm sorry." He says. "But it didn't crossed my mind it was important." A little later Helga calls the men to the dining room for dinner, the 3 get up and go for the evening meal; afterwards all go back to the living room for more conversation.

Since Meg had started a conversation earlier Bunji decides it is time for him start one. . . "So, Klara if you don't mind me asking are you adopted?" When neither she nor her family answer Bunji feels as if he insulted his hosts. "I'm sorry." He says. "I did not mean to insult anyone." Her father speaks for them. "We are not insulted." He says. "We are always ask the same question regarding our tochter." His wife continues the explanation. "Klara is not adopted, I gave birth to her." She says. Bunji is confused, but decides to ask how that came about. "Ok. She isn't adopted, but she doesn't look like either of you." He says.

"I'm half German and half Japanese." Klara tells him. "There is a condition called 'secondary infertility' from which I suffered after I had Friedrich." Helga adds. "Viktor and I wanted a second child, but I had a hard time getting pregnant, so I went to see my doctor to see what was wrong that's when she diagnosed me with secondary infertility." She finishes. Bunji still doesn't understand how that condition created Klara.

"We used IVF to treat the condition and have a second child." Mr. Rademacher says. "The clinic we went to was recommended to us by friends who had the treatment done before." He continues. "We did what we were told and once everything was in place I became pregnant." Helga says. "Two months into the pregnancy we got a call from the clinic and we were told my husband's sperm was used on someone else's egg cells."

"The clinic told us the egg cells used were of a Japanese woman who had died with no family to speak of; her cells were meant to be destroy, but instead they mixed them up with Helga's." Viktor adds. "They destroyed my wife's instead. We were told they would pay for Helga to have an abortion and we could start all over again, but as you can see we decided it wasn't worth it."

"She takes almost all her looks from the "egg donor" mother, but as you can see her skin color is a little bit lighter, she has my eyes and my nose." Viktor tells Bunji. To Bunji it was very obvious Klara's father was very proud of that fact. He then turns to Friedrich and Klara then says. . . "So, you two are half sibling, then?" The two nod acknowledging the fact. "Genetically we are half siblings, but that doesn't make us any different than you and Meg." Friedrich says to Bunji. Now it is Bunji doing the nodding to make the acknowledgment.

Mrs. Rademacher sees outside the window and notices how dark it is. "I think it's time to retire for the night, I'm sure you two need a good night's sleep after the trip." She tells Meg and Bunji. Saying the everyone got up and bid each other good night.


	2. Chapter 2

The Ballerina

Part 2

The following day Bunji is having a good time in Klara's company, the two are in the dinning room waiting for Meg and Friedrich to finish making lunch. "So, your brother says you practice martial arts and ballet, is that true or was he making it up?" She giggles a little before responding. "He called me a ninja-ballerina, didn't he?" Bunji nods. "I do practice Ninjitsu but my objective in life is to become a ballerina."

"I was 4 when I first began to take ballet lessons." Klara says. "It's been 14 years since I started." "You're 18?" Bunji asks. "Ja, I will be auditioning for Die Bayerische Staatsoper - The Bavarian State Ballet in a few weeks, I'm so excited." "I'm, about to graduate high school and I'm still not sure about what I want to do with my life." Bunji tells her.

Klara thinks I a little before responding. "What do you like to do?" "Well, I love martial arts but I don't know if that should be my career path." He responds. "What else do you like?" She further asks. Bunji thinks for a long time before he says a word. "I love Asian history." "Why not make that your life's path? You could become a teacher at a university or a researcher for a museum." Klara tells him. Bunji thinks for a moment. "That sounds like a plan." He says. "Thank you for the help."

After the meal the four head out to the garden Meg and Friedrich sit in a near by bench while Bunji and Klara walk a little further before sitting in another bench. "Tell me more about you." Klara tells Bunji. "Well, there isn't much to tell really." He begins. "My mother died when she was having me and my father disappear while on a field research in the Himalayas." Klara places a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"My father entrusted me to my mom and dad's care and when he disappeared they helped with the search, but when he wasn't found they adopted me." He finishes. She gives him a sad smile then. "It's ok." He says. "At times I have a feeling my father is near me." Bunji says as he stares into space. "Sometimes I feel as if he's watching me." Then he turns to her. "Ok. Now you tell me something about yourself, besides what your parents and brother have already told me."

Klara thinks long and hard before uttering a single word. "Well, because of the circumstances of my birth I have always have image issues." She says. "When I was very young during school this one kid older than me used to bullied me all the time; he would called me names and tell me my family didn't love me. One time my bruder heard him and got into a fight with him, the headmaster saw the whole thing and punished not only this kid, but my bruder too; Friedrich was suspended for one month because of me."

Now it was Bunji placing a comforting hand on Klara's shoulder. "One time I was feeling so bad." She continues. "I have a picture in my room with all of us in it . . . I was looking at it and noticed just how different I look from my parents and bruder . . . I began to cry, just then Friedrich walked in and saw me crying when he asked what was wrong I told him I was different from him and our parents."

"He stood next to me cheek to cheek and told me he didn't see anything different between us. I didn't believe him as you can see we are different." She says. "But he showed me just how alike we are. Friedrich told me I have papa's and mama's eyes even if I'm not genetically related to her my eye color still match hers, his are violet; the more he talk the more I saw what he saw, but that still didn't make feel good."

Bunji was taken aback by her words. "Why not? I mean if you saw what he did why didn't it made you feel any better." She smiles at him before answering. "I don't know." She says. "When he noticed my mood had not changed he practically dragged me downstairs to talk to our parents. They too assured me of how they felt about me, papa even said I was a miracle they were looking for."

"And that made you feel better, right?" Klara shakes her head no. "One thing I learned is that no matter how I look my family loves me and are willing to do anything to let me know." Bunji was a little confused by that statement. "Two days after that my bruder came in my room with his hair dyed black just like mine, but he did a poor job." She says and begins to giggle. "Some parts of his hair were still blond while others had globs of black dye and the tips were two toned." She says and giggles some more.

"Papa walked by and saw him, he nodded and left we didn't know what was wrong after a few minutes we found out; papa came in, grabbed him by the shirt and dragged him to one of the bathrooms. Mama was coming the other way and saw what was going on she and I followed them. Papa shoved him in the bathroom to show him the mess he had made."

"I haven't the least idea how he managed to sprayed hair dye all over the walls, the floor and the ceiling plus the bathtub, the sink and the mirror." By now Bunji was laughing so hard tears were rolling down his cheeks and fell off the bench. "Are you alright?" Klara asks him. "I'm fine." Bunji says.

"Continue." Bunji finally manages to say. At first Klara is not sure she should but after her guest dusted himself off she did. "Papa wanted him to clean up the mess immediately, but mama decided it was best to clean him up first and she did." "What?" Bunji asks astonish. "Mama sat him up in the bathtub's edge, re-shampooed his hair to get rid of the hair dye; it took her about 1 hour to get his hair clean, she understood why he did what he did but she did not approved of the mess."

Once again Bunji starts laughing just imagining what his friend's mother did. Klara too starts laughing, their communal happiness draws the stares of Meg and Friedrich who don't know what's going on. Bunji and Klara stare back and laugh even harder, the others just have a confused look on their faces. Once they manage to stop the laughter Bunji urges Klara to continue her story.

"I felt so bad for him." She starts. "Friedrich did a wonderful thing to make me feel better and now was in trouble for it; I helped him clean the bathroom." She finishes.

"That's one of the funniest stories I have ever heard." Bunji says. Klara blushes a little. "You asked me to tell you about me and that's the best I could come up with." She says. Bunji smiles at her. "It's been a long time since a girl made me laugh as much as you have, and that means a lot." "I have never had a good audience." She replies follow by shy smile.


	3. Chapter 3

The Ballerina

Part3

As their stay is coming to an end Bunji finds himself more and more interested in Klara, in fact he is falling in love with her. He manages to take his sister away from her boyfriend just long enough to talk to her about his feelings towards Klara.

"What is it?" Meg asks him a little alarm. "Nothing wrong, but I need your help with matters of the heart." He says and blushes a little. Meg smiles brightly understanding what he means. "You are falling in love!" She says in a delighted squeal. "Don't shout." Bunji says as he puts his hand over her mouth.

"Please listen." He implores as he removes his hand. "I am falling for her, but I don't know how to approach her and let her know how I feel and . . . and I'm afraid she might refuse me." Meg can see in Bunji's eyes the conflict of emotions. "What's more I'm afraid her parents are not going to be happy about it." "Don't worry." Meg says. "First of all you have to talk to her and tell her how you feel." Bunji's face turns pale.

"Oh come on, how are you going to win her heart if you start acting like that?" She says. "Here she comes, talk to her." She tells him and when he doesn't move she takes his hand and drags him to were his target is standing. "Hi!" Meg greats her cheerfully, then . . . "Bunji has something he wants to tell you." Klara and Friedrich look at Bunji, but Bunji isn't moving this time Meg shoves him to the front.

"I . . . I, is there a place we can talk in private?" He asks Klara. She nods and the two of them walk to a more secluded part in the large garden. "This barn used to housed horses." She says. "What it is use for now?" He asks. "We use it for storage and my bruder uses it to practice his guitar, papa doesn't want him inside the house making all that noise." Bunji starts laughing. "He much prefers him playing the violin or the piano."

Bunji is more at ease now that his heart's desire made him laugh just like last time. "Do you play any instruments?" He asks. She smiles at him. "I'm learning the koto, piano and the violin." She answers. Now it was her turn to ask. "Do you play any instruments?" "No." He answers. "But my sister does." Klara laughs. "I know." She says. "She and my bruder come here to play; he with his guitar and she with her drum kit."

The two spend few awkward minutes of silence before any of them says a word. "What do you want to tell me?" She asks him. Bunji was afraid of that, but it was now or never. "I'm falling in love with you." He says with eyes closed shot. When she doesn't answer he panics opening his eyes at once; what he finds is Klara staring at him mouth wide open.

"I'm sorry." He says. She closes her mouth and takes off running like a deer. "Wait!" Bunji calls out and runs after her. She runs past Friedrich and Meg. "Klara!" Her brother calls out to her and takes off after her. Meg is left standing wondering what happened; Bunji soon appears and stops right in front of his sister. "What happened?" She asks him confused. Bunji frowns at her and responds. "Thank you for the advise, I told her I have feelings for her and . . . and she ran."

"I'm sorry." Is all she can say. "Sorry won't cut it." He says. "What am I going to do now? Her parents will be furious with me." A few minutes later Friedrich comes back to talk to Bunji and he does not look happy. "She's in her room crying." He says to Bunji. "What did you tell her?" "I . . . I told her, I told her I was falling in love with her." Bunji responds. Friedrich takes a deep breath then motions the siblings to sit with him in the nearest bench.

"Two years ago a boy told my schwester he was in love with her, she believed him and in the end he broke her heart." Both Meg and Bunji are a gasp now they understand why Klara reacted the way she did. "She thought I would hurt her?" Bunji says horrified. Friedrich nods. "I would never do such a thing." Bunji says. "I meant what I said, she makes me laughs, I'm head over heels for her. . ." Before he continues Friedrich interrupts him. "Don't tell me that, if you want her go tell her."

Both Meg and Bunji are surprised by his words; Bunji smiles at his friend and takes off after Klara. "I can't believe you told my brother that." Meg says. "She likes too, but doesn't have the courage to tell him." Is his response. She smiles broadly. "I think they make a very cute couple." She says. He smiles back nodding his agreement.

Bunji lightly knocks on Klara's door. "Go away." Is her response. "Klara, please I want to talk to you." He waits for a few minutes then when he about to leave she opens the door. Her tear stained face greats him. "Come in." She says. Bunji walks in she motions him to sit on her bed while she's standing up looking directly at him. "Look, I meant what I said." He begins. "I'm falling in love with you."

"I know." She says. "Then, why did you run away?" "Because I've been hurt before and . . . and because I'm falling in love with you too." She confesses. Bunji gives her a big smile, while she responds with her usual shy one something Bunji has now grown accustomed to. "I know it takes time to trust someone after something like that, but I would never hurt you." He says. "Klara . . ." He gets up and kisses her softly. He pulls from her to look at her reaction; she smiles shyly again, then she kisses him lightly.

The two sit on her bed holding hands not saying a word just looking into each other's eyes the world was right once again. Hope fills Klara's broken heart once more and this time something deep inside tells her it will last for eternity. Bunji too feels something in him telling she is the girl he was longing for, the one he was praying for, the girl of his dreams.

To his surprise she does something he did not expect; Klara lays her head on his shoulder and sighs a light smile appears on her lips, she looks up at him and gives a full blown smile. Bunji smiles back and without any warming kisses yet again hungrily this time - she responds to his hungry kisses and does hold back, instead she gives as much as he can take. "Don't forget to breathe." A male voice says out of nowhere, the two pull apart and see both Meg and Friedrich stand by the door she is giggling while he is smiling. "Gee, thanks." Bunji says follow by laughter from all four of them.

The End

Translation

Vater - Father

Mutter - Mother

Bruder - Brother

Schwester - Sister


End file.
